In domestic food freezers, particularly chest-type freezers, a persistent problem has been the difficulty in locating a specific package of frozen food (a particular cut or variety of wrapped meat, for example) in a full or semifull freezer. If the desired package is deep within the freezer, overlying packages must be removed by hand, a distinctly uncomfortable exercise, until the desired article is accessible. Cooling loss, and hence energy loss, is inherent in this method of retrieving particular articles from the freezer since the freezer closure must be kept open during the hand sorting of the articles.
Prior art attempts at solution to this problem have included use of circular racks rotatable upon a vertical axis, in lazy-susan fashion, within a refrigerator (U.S. Pat. No. 2,680,668). A cylindrical basket, divided into cylindrical segments, rotated on a horizontal axis has been used in wine cooling (U.S. Pat. No. 2,447,602), however, in thses prior art structures, no provision is made for arresting the tumbling of articles in a partially full segment or chamber as horizontal axis rotation proceeds.
The present invention utilizes a horizontal, cylindrical basket, divided by curving walls into segmental chambers, and utilizes hinged closures for each chamber. The curved configuration of the chamber sidewalls permits the closures to swing inwardly and be fastened in their chambers to thus hold articles from tumbling within a partially filled chamber during rotation of the basket. The assembly of the present invention may be inserted into an existing freezer or can be incorporated into a freezer designed specifically to receive the assembly.